Ghosts of Chernobyl
by jmanus707
Summary: An account of two Russian ultra-nationalist soldiers in the week before the mission All Ghillied Up. This is an experiment for now, I'm not real deep into this so it depends on what you readers want me to do. Please comment. Rated T, for now...


**Introduction:**

All I ever wanted to do was serve and protect the Motherland, like my father and his father before him. When I was denied this, I was forced to seek out the ultra-nationalists. Under the wing of Imaran Zakheav, I was trained to be a ruthless unforgiving killer of all who oppose the Motherland. My mission was simple, accompany the legendary sniper, Sasha Ivashenko, and clear the city of Pripyat of any threats that could interfere with the transaction that would take place in the following week. Simple, right? But, what if that threat was unlike anything anybody has ever had to deal with before? My name is Dmitri Semenov, and this was my last mission.

**Arrival:**

"First time in the Ukraine?" a soldier asked.

"Yeah, how about you?" I responded.

"No, I was born here, before the meltdown. It's my first time back."

Our conversation was interrupted by the helicopter pilot.

"Dmitri, rope down onto the office building, you'll receive further instruction there," he said. "Watch out for the pockets of radiation, if the dogs don't get you, it will."

I peered down over the edge of the helicopter. the mid-morning sun was casting shadows across the abandoned city. After a deep breath, I clipped myself to the rope, closed my eyes, and jumped. Now safely on the ground, the helicopter flew toward the outskirts of the city. I took a look around, the cold air was not helping the already depressing mood. The buildings were hauntingly empty and most of the windows were broken. I walked toward the door to go into the building when a chill went down my neck and spine. I turned, but there was nothing there. The inside of the building looked like the outside, cracked concrete, broken windows, and a dull shade of grey. I reached for a doorknob when a voice interrupted me.

"I wouldn't to that if I were you," a man emerged from the shadows, "it's boobie trapped."

"Sasha Ivashenko, oh wow," I said awkwardly. "Sorry, I'm a bit of a fan."

Sasha opened the door and quickly swooped his hand down to catch a glass jar with a grenade inside of it.

"Simple, but effective," he said.

Sasha retrieved a map of the city to give instruction.

"We'll secure this sector here," Sasha said, pointing at an area of the map. "You'll need this."

Sasha threw me an AK-47 assault rifle, credited as the toughest rifle in the world. Nothing felt better to me than chambering the bullet in such a legendary gun. Sasha Ivashenko was fairly tall with a healthy build. He was an ex-spetsnaz sniper, a damn good one too. Instead of a modern high powered sniper rifle, he carried an old Dragunov rifle, probably from the seventies or eighties. He wore a normal combat uniform, but with a grey camouflage pattern.

"Welcome to Pripyat," Sasha said," a city of 50,000 people, or at least it used to be. I'm sure you were warned about the radiation. Our mission is to search the city for snipers or other combatants, then eliminate them. It's not safe to go out at night because of the dogs, which is why we'll only operate during the day. this building will be our rendezvous point. Let's move out."

It was so exciting, not only getting to meet my hero, but work along side him as well. Once we stepped outside, the reality of what had happened to the city finally set in. Cars, abandoned. Houses, destroyed. The first building we searched was a school. The sound of our boots echoed through the empty halls.

"We'll split up and search room by room," Sasha said.

"Roger that," I responded.

The first room I searched looked like a classroom young children. I stopped to pick up a dirty teddy bear from the ground when I heard footsteps running through the hall. I looked, but saw nothing.

"Hey Sasha! Did you here that? It sounded like somebody was running," I shouted to him.

"No, I didn't hear anything," he responded.

"That was weird," I thought to myself before continuing the search.

A loud shot from Sasha's gun startled me half to death. I ran in to see what had happened. There against the wall was the twisted and mangled body of an unknown man. Looking at the body revealed that the the man was suffering from severe radiation poisoning.

"I guess this city isn't abandoned after all," Sasha said, looking at the body." Some people must not have wanted to leave the city."


End file.
